Job Cuts Down Month-Over-Month and Year-Over-Year in May 2022

Posted on June 2, 2022

According to the latest Job Cut Report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas (CG&C), Inc, a global outplacement and business and executive coaching firm, U.S. based employers announced 20,712 job cuts in May. This is a -14.7% decrease from 24,286 announced in April of 2022. Year-over-year, it is -15.8% lower from the 24,586 cuts announced in May of 2021.

So far this year, employers announced plans to cut 100,694 job cuts, down -48% from the 192,185 cuts announced through the same period in 2021. It is the lowest recorded January–May total since Challenger began tracking monthly job cut announcements in 1993.

Of the 30 industries Challenger tracks, four saw more job cuts announced in May than in the previous four months of the year combined:

  1. Technology sector companies that announced 4,044 cuts in May, up 781% from the 459 cuts the industry announced in January through April.
  2. Fintech sector companies that announced 268% more cuts in May than in the first four months of 2022. In 2022, Fintech firms announced 2,059 cuts, a 270% increase from the 556 announced in the first five months of 2021.
  3. Construction sector firms that announced 817 job cuts in May for a total of 1,150, a 55% increase from the 741 cuts announced through May of 2021. It is the highest monthly total for the sector since October 2020 when Construction firms announced 967 cuts.
  4. The automotive sector announced the second highest number of cuts last month with 2,918 for a total of 5,380. This is up 6.6% from the 5,049 cuts announced through May 2021.

In May of 2022, U.S. employers announced 126,083 hiring plans, primarily on plans from Ace Hardware to hire 40,000 associates and 7-Eleven, which plans to hire 60,000.

So far this year, Challenger has tracked 612,686 hiring announcements, up 39% from the 441,696 hiring plans announced through May of last year. It is the second-highest January-May hiring total since the firm began tracking hiring plans in 2006. The record occurred in 2020, when 1,260,661 hiring plans were announced in the first five months of the year.

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